Inside your home stuff

Not a single item in that kit is ‘junk’!

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Needs an item that only fits in the drawer in two orientations.

And one of those orientations means it will roll slightly and jam the drawer.

Mine is a wing mirror from a Mercedes that belongs to a friend.

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Never know when that could come in handy!

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I think there’s too much tape left on that dispenser.

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And maybe not dried out enough; it looks pretty fresh to me.

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Anoia, Goddess of Things That Get Stuck In Drawers.

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Instead we have chopsticks, both ones still in the red packets, and ones just rattling around for quick use.
Also straws in wrappers, and the large radius ones that I like unwrapped.
And a package of oven light bulbs for our old oven that may or may not fit in the new one.
Plastic lids for cat food containers of the wrong size. And a couple of ones for aluminum coke cans, that no longer fit tightly so all the fizz disappears.
Clamps for bags of cereal etc. More than we’d ever need.
Two rolling pins, one from each set of parents.
Stamps, checks, return address labels from dozens of charities, appliance manuals, keys, pens

I could go on . . .

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Ooh, we could have used those! We had to go out and buy a pair. I was so sure I had more stored on top of our refrigerator with the other light bulbs, paper towels, napkins, an oversized foil pan, and a full bag of corks that we’ve saved over the years for no particular reason.

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That’s the best reason, I’ve determined by careful experiment.

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Sometimes for me, the reason for saving things has turned out to be a yard sale.

E.g. for a while I saved the round metal ends from cans of frozen juice and lemonade concentrate. (Just the end that comes off when you open it. The other end tends to deform when you try to pull out the cardboard.)

juice concentrate can.Screenshot 2025-02-05 at 6.15.59 PM

I was thinking I’d make a room divider by punching four holes in each one, evenly-spaced around the rim, and joining them with rings, kind of a mod 60’s vibe. I eventually accumulated a large bag of them. But then the house was put on the market and it looked like the other tenants and I might have to move, so we had a big yard sale. I didn’t really think anyone would want the can-ends, but who knows, so I put them out there with a price on them.

They were bought by a school teacher, who said she was happy to get them, because she always had to have multiples of the same things. That’s where I learned that if you save enough of the same thing, that would have just been thrown out as trash individually, it becomes worth something. (I think I had only put a $1 tag on the bag of them, just to see if anyone would buy it :slight_smile: )

I still save them. One day—someday—I’ll have another yard sale, maybe :slight_smile:

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The drawer, right now, miraculously contains two pairs of scissors, instead of zero. It also contains an atonal/non-tempered harmonica from Brookstone, & that’s after we cleaned out the drawer.

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I usually have a few lying around. They make a good disposable surface for mixing tiny amounts of epoxy. I mentioned upthread that I once made a snuffer for tealights from one.
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This

…is a god-damned grift!

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Can you find an old oven (maybe a friend is replacing theirs, or you know of a junkyard) and pull out the piece?

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One thing I’ll recommend from experience: try calling a local parts supplier. Our local chain lists similar prices on their website, but inevitably when I call for a price for a store pickup (rather than ordering through their web portal) the price is 1/2 to 1/3 the standard retail. You might have a parts dealer in the area that works the same way. Any company that stocks Whirlpool parts is probably worth calling (but not all of these sorts of places sell to non-professionals, so be aware).

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I mean yeah, as a handy guy myself, that’s what I would do. My smallish city used to have two good parts suppliers where I would normally take care of this at a fraction of the cost. But no longer. Now it’s military contractor pricing. I’d rather just go without. It would be cheaper to just have the oven light on at all times than to replace the switch.

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One of the ceiling fans was being noisy. I figured maybe I’d open it up and clean out the dust. I wasn’t prepared for just how bad it was.

After a good cleaning, it looks much better. And no more noise.

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